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Units of the Metric System

Units of the Metric System. 1. What is a unit?. A unit is the name we give to the quantity of something measured. For example, the quantity of time it takes to walk to your next class might take 1 minute. So a minute is a unit that measures the quantity of time.

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Units of the Metric System

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  1. Units of the Metric System

  2. 1. What is a unit? • A unit is the name we give to the quantity of something measured. • For example, the quantity of time it takes to walk to your next class might take 1 minute. So a minute is a unit that measures the quantity of time. • The same amount of time can be described as measuring 60 seconds. This is a different, smaller unit that we measure time with.

  3. 2. Distance • The unit of measurement that is used to describe the distance between two points is the meter. • The meter is currently defined as “the length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum during the time interval of 1/299,792,458th of a second”. • When writing a distance, you could write, as a random example, 3 meters. • However, the meter can be abbreviated by a lower case “m”. So instead you could write 3 m. • “m” is the abbreviation for the meter.

  4. 3. Time • The unit of measurement that is used to describe the amount of time that has passed is the second. • The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom. • When writing down the amount of time, you could write for example, 8 seconds. • However, the second can be abbreviated by a lower case “s”. So instead you could write 8 s. • “s” is the abbreviation for the second.

  5. 4. Mass (Weight) • The unit of measurement that is used to describe how much matter (stuff) is in an object is the gram. • The gram is the weight of 1 cubic centimeter of water at 4 °C • When writing down the amount of mass, you could write for example, 400 grams. • However, the gram can be abbreviated by a lower case “g”. So instead you could write 400 g. • “g” is the abbreviation for the second.

  6. 5. Other units of the metric system. • Volume is measured in liters which is abbreviated “L”. • Temperature is measured in kelvins which is abbreviated “K”. • Electric current is measured in amperes which is abbreviated “A”. • The intensity of light is measured in candela which is abbreviated “cd”. • The amount of a substance is measured in moles which is abbreviated “mol”.

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